Aggression Flashcards
Does media violence make people more aggressive? What kinds of evidence are there? Exposure to violence & sex and memory for adverts (Bushman & Bonacci, 2002, study) Cultural factors Factors that reduce inhibition Individual differences
Definition of aggression
any behaviour that is intended to harm another person with the knowledge that the target is motivated to avoid the action
types of aggression
hostile aggression, instrumental aggression & relational aggression
hostile agression (reactive) : to inflict pain, typically emotional (anger), an end in itself, often external trigger
instrumental aggression (proactive): something other than causing pain, means to an end (pain is a middle goal towatds other end, e.g., torture to ask information, self-defence)
relational aggression: to harm the target’s social relationship (e.g. nagetive comments behind the target’s back)
Instinct theories of agression （nature）
Darwin & Ethology
1. Darwin believed that aggressive behaviour is an evolutionary adaptation that increased survival
2. ethology view aggression as instinct based, functional, not automatic and elicited by situational factors.
the steam boiler model suggests that aggressive energy is produced continuously within the organism and will burst out spontaneously unless released by external stimulus.
3. the critism instinct theory
if one agressive behaviour used up the aggressive energy, the individual should calm down, but one aggressive behaviour usually triggers but not suppress further ones.
Catharsis of aggression (nature)
release the built-up anger in symblic ways (sports, virtual reality games)
Freud believed that build-up aggressive tendencies needs to be released.
symbolic acts of aggression can be regarded as aggressive cues that prime hostile thoughts and feelings, thus facilitate more aggressive behaviour
Social learning theory of agreesion (Nurture)
we learn social behaviour by observing others and imitating them (direct reinforcement and vicarious learning)
Bandura’s Bobo doll experiments
young children observe an adult behaviour (agreesive or not) towards Bobo doll
children imitate aggressive behaviour
result: more lively aggression behaviour observed by children–>more aggresion
Frustration-aggression hypothesis
frustration (blockage of goal-directed activity) increases the likelihood of aggressive behaviour
closer to goals–>bigger frustration when goal unachieved–<more aggression
BUT not all agression arise from frustration and not all frustration results in aggression
“the weapons effect” – empirical evidence? (Berkowitz & Le Page, 1967)
frustrated individuals showed more aggressive behaviour in the presence of weapons than in the presence of neutral objects
high anger +aggressive cue–>more aggressive
Environmental factors linked to aggression
pain, heat, crowding, excitation transfer model
Excitation transfer model
heightened (unrelated) arousal (e.g. due to physical activity) makes us more aggressive
explaination: transfer of neutral physiological arousal onto arousal redulting from frustration, thus increasing negative affect and enhancing the strength of an aggressive response
Does media violence make people more aggressive? What kinds of evidence are there?
Evidence for:
a) child who watch more violent TV tend to be more aggressive
b) homicide rates in crease in the week after heavyweight boxing match
mechanism: exposure to media depiction of aggression can
1) increase the accessibilities of aggressive thoughts and feelings,
2) facilitate social learning proces
3) in the long term, habituation towards aggression ,and thus reduce empathy to victims
4) increase an individuals normative acceptance of aggression
Evidence against: Exposure to violence & sex and memory for adverts (Bushman & Bonacci, 2002, study)
Exposure to violence & sex and memory for adverts (Bushman & Bonacci, 2002, study)
the neutral ads produced the best performance among all 3 tests
sex and violence worsen performances, and sex-ads produced the worst results among all test
Cultural factors for aggression
more likely to be aggressive when the social norms permit/ reinforce violence, and you were socialised into a culture of honour or subculture
descriptive norm of alcohol, anonymity (deindividualization), culture of honour (violence to restore honour)
how to reduce aggression? what doesnt work and what does work?
catharsis and punishment doesnt work
de-escalation through eliciting incompatible response
Reinforcing alternative behavior,social skill training, prosocial role models, relaxation and anger management,self-instruction, use of music works
Individual differences for aggression
a) aggressive personality
b) hostile attribution bias -interprete ambiguous events as hostile
c) gender: boys more physical aggression, girls more relational aggression, no difference in overall level of aggression
d) psychopathy: low empathy, unemotional affective reations (link to instrumental aggression)
e) narcissism and threatened ego
f) poor self-control
